A few weeks ago we were invited to shoot a video at the legendary Kresge house in the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit. Our good friend Anthony Ernest Garth led the way as director/producer and Mike Berlucchi was the man behind the camera for the day. The house was recently purchased by a member of the Lynch family (Lynch & Sons), who has taken up the daunting task of rebuilding the home to it’s former glory.

We showed up on site around 10am and started unpacking the van. The scene was already bustling with setups galore, which included lighting rigs, smoke machines, dollies, models, actors and catering. Now, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting the house to look like a dilapidated “Frankenstein” of yesteryears, but to my surprise Mr. Lynch, the new owner of the estate, had massaged the house back into its former splendor. The addition of Lynch’s own Gothic style provided an air of elegance strewn with personal angels and demons and an abundance of religious icons. Pictures of Jesus, baby Jesus, Mother Mary, numerous saints and other religious figures lined the walls of the massive home. All the religious iconography might create a tomb-like atmosphere for some, but according to Mr. Lynch it all just adds to his sense of “home”.

The First scenes were shot in the basement, which was not really a basement at all. After descending the dark staircase, the landscape opened up into a miniature ballroom with a grandiose fireplace in the center. Anthony and crew set us up right in front of the fireplace and turned off all of the lights, except one red led light they had brought themselves. One after another, each of the us (the hounds below) performed our parts in the fire-lit room, covered in sweat and not able to see, we performed our collective ass off. Four hours later our bit parts in the video were done so we headed upstairs and got some lunch. While we were snacking, we noticed more and more people coming into the house. I assumed they were models and actors, since no one looks this good/intriguing in real life. Each one of the newly entered participants were shuttled off into separate rooms to prepare for their individual scenes. From the photographs I saw after the shoot, everyone ended up shirtless, men and women alike. I personally have no idea what each scene was about, as I was setting up for my own shots.

There I sat in the middle of the main living room of a century-old house in Detroit Michigan, alone in a chair built with arms that curved like a sickle that a reaper might have held in one of the gothic paintings hung in this home. I personally had never felt 100% comfortable mouthing the words to a song, so instead they turned up a speaker someone had brought in for the shoot and i went at it. After an hour or so of singing my head off into empty space, i was finally done.

We said our good-byes and crossed our fingers that we had just finished something to be proud of.